Damwon Gaming and KT Rolster kicked off the League of Legends Champions Korea 2020 Spring playoffs with the first round of the gauntlet today, with Damwon taking the series 2-1 after three close games.
Whereas KT focused on their players’ strengths, Damwon took risks and chose original picks throughout the series, such as a bot lane Syndra, top lane Kalista, and a Kog’Maw.
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Damwon kicked off the series with an aggressive strategy and strong early game picks, rapidly taking the edge on KT. And although the game reached over 30 minutes with KT catching several players in their jungle, Damwon won after one successful push in the late game.
Game two looked like an LPL game with endless teamfights and over one kill per minute. KT gave no alternative to Damwon but to fight and successfully tied the series after securing Baron and an Elder Drake.
Both teams played more cautiously in the last game of the best-of-three series. The game was slower paced, with each side fighting for a gold or kill lead until late game, when the slightest mistake would lead to disaster.
KT Rolster started a fight in the Baron pit and lost a player. The remaining players were chased down, which opened an opportunity for Damwon to make a push to KT’s base and take away the series.
“It was a hard match,” Damwon’s midlaner Heo “ShowMaker” Su said in the post-match interview. “But it feels nice to see that we pulled it off.”
This series ended KT’s run in the LCK 2020 Spring Split. The team showed inconsistent performance throughout the split and faltered in the last few weeks, but they earned their spot in the playoffs nonetheless. After finishing at fifth place, they will get some time to adjust and come stronger into the LCK Summer Split.
On the other hand, Damwon will have to beat the three elite teams to get to the playoffs finals where Gen.G wait. Their next match will be against DragonX in a best-of-five series on Monday, April 20 at 3am CT time. DragonX has been on fire this season after upgrading their solo laners with Griffin’s Chovy and Doran. The odds were against Damwon Gaming before, but after their recent improved play nothing is counted out already. Damwon’s top laner Nuguri has been first in LCK stats for top laners for most of the split, outside of KDA. He is willing to sacrifice his life for the better play most of the time.
